Govt to launch framework for skills development: Sibal

Mumbai, Nov 13: Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Sunday said the government will launch a framework on vocational educational next year to address the skills development challenges the country faces.

The National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework will be launched next year with the objective of having 500 million skilled workers and 200 million graduates by 2022, Sibal said at the CII-WEF organised India Economic Summit in Mumbai.

"We need to integrate education with skill development. You need a national vocational education qualification framework based on industrial outcome standards, which industry must set for us," Sibal said.

Once the suggestion from the industry is received, Sibal said a curriculum will be prepared to ensure that students passing out of schools and colleges would have actually acquired the standards as per their qualifications.

Sibal quoted the late management guru C K Prahlad and said, "We need to equip the students with the necessary skill sets to realise the aim of having sustained double digit growth for the country."

The minister, who also handles information technology and telecom portfolios, said a large amount of foreign investment which is on its way following recent policy changes, will be in the vocational education sector.

PTI